New Fisheries Management Plan Seeks to Rebuild Stocks

GHANA - A new fisheries management plan seeks to rebuild fish stocks in Ghana whilst also enhancing the socio-economic conditions of fishing communities as well as create employment, improve food security and contribute towards foreign exchange earnings within national and international standards.

The fisheries management plan has outlined some key action plans to rebuild fisheries stock. One of the significant action plans is the creation of habitat protection areas for spawning grounds in estuaries or mangroves, in addition to controlling the number and capacity of vessels in efforts to rebuild fisheries stock, reports NewsGhana.

The action plans also set a target to achieve 50 per cent reduction in fishing days over the next five years, as well as to reduce fishing effort through strict implementation of the sanctions framework under the Fisheries (Amendment) Act 2014 to promote procreation of fishes to achieve nutrition security.

Moreover, the action plans also will undertake survey and registration of active canoes, increase the traditional one day per week fishing holiday to two days per week, and control/moratorium on new entrants to the fishery.

Others are to improve social intervention through the implementation of insurance and pension scheme for fishermen, implementation of co-management for the artisanal sector, and modernisation of the fleet by using innovative materials to control increasing effort number of canoes.